She liked it, too, but she wouldn’t admit it. Not now. Not ever.
With a knowing smile, he carried her into the house and up the stairs. At her chamber door, he let her body slide intimately against his own as he set her on her feet. “Goodnight, fair Bryony,” he murmured. “I will summon Mrs. Mulgrew and have her bring you some supper.” And with that, he vanished from her sight.
Bryony stood there for a long time, staring at the place where he had stood, before she went into her bedchamber and closed the door behind her, feeling more lost and confused than she had ever been before. She wanted desperately to go home and yet, perversely, she couldn’t abide the thought of leaving Stefan, of never seeing him again.
Stefan’s mother had concocted a potion that allowed him to be active for long periods of time during the day, should the need arise. Stefan had rarely used it. For one thing, it tasted vile. For another, he preferred the darkness. But perhaps Bryony would be less afraid of him if she spent time with him during the day instead of always by night. Most humans instinctively felt safer when the sun was up. Perhaps she wouldn’t see him as such a monster if they went riding or shopping or walking in the afternoon. He didn’t have much faith that it would make a big difference but at this point, he was willing to try anything to ease her fears and make her see him as a man and not a monster, though monster was what he was. What he always would be.
Bryony stared at Stefan in open-mouthed surprise when he joined her as she was finishing lunch the following afternoon. He wore black trousers and a black shirt, open at the throat. She couldn’t ever remember seeing him when the sun was high in the sky. What was he doing here now?
Sitting in the chair opposite hers, he smiled at her as if it was perfectly normal for him to be there in the middle of the day.
“What… How…?”
“Do you wish me to leave?”
She hesitated a moment, then shook her head. Not until he explained his noonday appearance.
“Is there anything you would like to do today, fair Bryony? Besides go home,” he added, knowing that would be her first request.
“I thought you couldn’t be awake during the day?”
“I can if I wish.” He had hoped she would see him as a man; instead, she wanted to question the vampire. “But I prefer the night.”
“Why?”
Why, indeed? Hunting was better, prey more easily taken in the dark. But he couldn’t tell her that. “It is my nature to be awake during the night.”
“Why are you awake now?”
“I wanted to be with you when the sun was up.”
She regarded him suspiciously for a moment. “Did you think it would make me forget what you are?”
He grunted softly. She was more insightful than he thought. “I hoped it would make me seem less foreign, less frightening.”
“I don’t think anything could do that,” she replied candidly. “I don’t know how anyone can spend time with you and not sense the invisible power that sets you apart from everyone else.”
“Most people do not sense it if I do not want them to.” He stared at her, his eyes narrowed thoughtfully. “But you felt it right away. It is most peculiar.”
“Do you ever eat anything?”
“No.”
“Because you can’t? Or because you don’t want to?”
“I cannot digest solid food.” He swore under his breath. Perhaps meeting with her in the daytime had been a mistake. All it had done was provoke more questions he would rather not answer.
“Do you sleep in that coffin?”
“No.” He had, centuries ago, but he saw no need to tell her that. Or mention that he did so while she slept in his bed.
“Then why do you have it? Is…is there someone in it?”
“No, fair Bryony,” he said, stretching his legs out in front of him. “It is only a box, nothing more.”
She looked doubtful, but nodded. “How do you get from one place to another so fast?”
“I merely think about where I wish to be and I am there.”
